More than 90% of British Columbians want permanent daylight time: survey

More than 93 per cent of respondents to a B.C. government survey don’t want to spring forward anymore.

The premier’s office says 223,273 people responded to the survey and a strong majority of them supported moving permanently to daylight time.

With the exception of students, support for year-round daylight time was higher than 90 per cent in all regions of B.C. and across all industry and occupational groups.

But 54 per cent of those surveyed also said it was “important” or “very important” that the province’s clocks align with neighbouring jurisdictions.

In a statement, Premier John Horgan’s office says officials in Washington, Oregon and California are in various stages of writing or enacting legislation to adopt year-round daylight time, but require federal approval first.

As B.C. determines its next steps, Horgan says the survey results will be considered alongside responses from other provinces and the western states.

The online survey was conducted internally by the government with the aim of getting a wide sample of feedback. The consultation period was from June 24 to July 19.

The survey says 75 per cent of respondents identified health and wellness concerns as their reason for wanting to scrap the time change, but the same health reasons were cited by the minority who favoured falling back and springing forward.

Fifty-three per cent of those who supported year-round daylight time mentioned the benefit of additional daylight during the evening commute in winter, while 39 per cent pointed to other safety concerns.